August 13th, 2009

Sean Witzke recently wrote a piece on this, a Dr Strange screenplay written by the odd couple paring of Stan Lee and Alex Cox. For those of you who don’t know, Cox is about as idiosyncratic a creator as cinema has ever seen, known for dirty, profoundly unconventional films like Repo Man, and Walker (director), and his screenplay for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and as such is about the unlikeliest candidate for this gig that I can imagine, and yet somehow someone somewhere thought that it might just work. Personally I would love to see what Cox could have done with this material – at worst his weird-ass synthetic approach to storytelling would have produced something very interesting indeed, and at best, well, who knows? What’s for certain is that it wouldn’t look much like the deeply conventional blockbuster pap that we’re served up today. (z)

The spectacle makes its first move to co-opt Black Metal. Branded BM jeans, with Sun O)))) leaving their ‘sell out motherfucker’ flank somewhat exposed on the advert. Why not leather manskirts? See the camp corpse catastrophe here.(b)

You’re probably all over this already, but if not here is the best hour you have spent for some time.(b)

Thanks to Andrew Hickey for pointing out this one, a PDF ‘zine created by one Mr Andrew Rilstone in which the author draws together a collage of essays centred around fandom, Watchmen and the nature of the comic book reading experience (which is mirrored in the structure of the ‘zine: there’s magic in the gutters between them there essays). It’s ambitious and hefty stuff, but surprisingly accessible given the relatively short length of most of the essays in question, and the fact that it doesn’t insist on being read in one sitting. I don’t want to say much more about it other than it’s Mindless, entertaining and thought provoking stuff. (z)

Guys, (in a non-gender specific way) I don’t know if you read about this douche doing this douchey thing to another douche, the other douche being Rob Liefeld, emphasis on the first syllable of the surname there? Not enough people talk about what a fucking liar the creator of Cable & Deadpool is. Anyway, everyone is totally talking about that shit, in a way that makes me want to lock myself in a coal shed for 22 days minimum, but you can – see here, the alchemist’s nigredo – still write interestingly about it and fan-culture, which I’m perhaps more horrifyingly conflicted about than one really should be, and straight out the gate at that, as proven by Jordyn Marcellus.

British safety ads of the 70′s and 80′s were absolutely fucking terrifying. They were also made like mini horror movies. Check out the first one here. It’s actually quite brilliant – the lighting, the sound, Donald Pleasance…who could ask for more. Plenty of other scary treats including the scariest of all: Jimmy Saville. (tbmd)

Because Bobsy’s stolen my recommendation (FOLLOW THE THIRD LINK!), I’ll have to go with Bill Drummond’s Penkiln Burn site. If you’re unfamiliar with Drummond, he’s more commonly known as one half of early nineties situationist pop duo, the KLF, or that infuriating TWAT who burnt a million quid and then tried to flog the ashes back to the Tate Gallery for the same amount, but he’s also kept himself busy over the years with interactive art installations such as ‘IS GOD A CUNT?’, forcing music journalists who come to interview him to conduct the ancient rites of Mu and touring the country and the world, rounding up choirs of seventeen people to perform neolithic anti-music in an attempt to destroy pop. Yeah, so if all this sounds like your bag, the Penkiln Burn’s for you. It takes a bit of exploring and a bit of work, but it’s hugely entertaining and absorbing if you put in the effort, and if you’ve read Drummond’s books, especially ’The 17′, it’s a brilliant and obvious adjunct to his stuff. (amypoodle)

I really like this little 8-pager on the Top Shelf site, by Andrew Drilon. Really nice artwork – a bit of Mignola, and a touch of Taiyo Matsumoto (one of my all time favourite creators), but with a boldness and fluidity all of it’s own. Well done that man! (tbmd)